This year, I’m going back to using Notion to organize my SLP caseload and track student sessions and data. In this post, I explain what Notion is and why I’m using it so you can decide if Notion may be a good fit for your needs too.
Story time – How I settled on Notion
My executive dysfunction
Every time the beginning of a new school year comes, I get a sense of nervous anticipation and hint of dread when I think about how I’m going to keep myself organized this year. And if it’ll be any better than the last year.
From paper notebooks and sticky notes, to Google forms and sheets, to my school’s IEP program, even to SLP Toolkit for a stretch – I feel like I’ve tried it all. And none of the systems are perfect.
But this year, I’m going back to Notion.
Because of all the systems I’ve tried so far, Notion works best for my neurodivergent brain. Notion plays into my executive function strengths to compensate for my weaknesses. Like organization.
I’ve always struggled to keep track of papers and put them in the right places – or where I’ll remember them later. When I carried a paper notebook, I would open to a random page each time (too focused to think about organization) and then curse myself later when I couldn’t find my notes. Organization has never come naturally to me.
So I tried digital google docs, sheets, and forms. My organization improved a little, but my sheets were too ugly, filling out google forms for each student felt tedious, and I was still wasting time scrolling and clicking as I searched for the right digital files.
Inevitably, I found that despite my best intentions that this year I’d have my paperwork game together, the chaos as the school year progressed would lead me right back to where I started. A bit of a mess. Feeling overwhelmed. And wondering what happened to that system I built at the beginning of the year that held so much promise?
What went wrong? How could I get back on track?
I learned to choose an organizational system that aligned with my brain’s strengths and could compensate for my brain’s weaknesses. And that I needed to pre-plan for when times would be tight and stressful.
Enter Notion…
I first heard about Notion when I ventured into the “productivity” sphere of YouTube. I was looking for tools for daily planning and task management, and Notion kept popping up as this productivity organizational tool.
Many people swear by Notion for their productivity system or set up, so I tried it out myself. Although I decided it wasn’t a good fit for my daily to-do list, I saw potential for my SLP organization needs. So I experimented in Notion, trying it out for managing my caseloads, session logs, data tracking, materials inventory, calendar, pending evaluation tracker.
Of those, I’ve found Notion most useful for managing my caseload, logging session notes, and data tracking for progress reports.
Last year I didn’t use Notion because my school had its own online system where I needed to log sessions. I didn’t want to repeat my session logs in both their system and my own system. But man did I regret that choice later!
Using someone else’s system alone just didn’t work for me. I get so much more out of the session logs and data tracking system I crerated myself. So even if I have to enter logs twice, for me it’s worth the double effort come progress report and IEP writing time. Having my student’s progress easily accessible saves me so much time later.
What is Notion?
Notion is a web application where you can create and curate your own workspace and productivity system that meets your needs. It primary consists of pages, tables/databases, and calendars that you can use to organize your workflow.
Some people use Notion for task or project management, entering sets of data in databases, and linking pages or building collaborative spaces.
One of the most interesting (and most difficult) things about notion is how customizable it is. You can do so many different things with it that getting started isn’t straightforward. There is a learning curve for initial set up, but over time I feel like Notion saves me time and energy when I need it most.
Arguably the best part? It’s FREE. There are paid plans with more features especially for teams/collaboration, but you can use Notion for managing your own SLP caseload & session logs completely for free.
What can you do in Notion?
- Viewing my caseload
- Logging sessions
- Data collection/data tracking
- Database for therapy materials
- Database for evaluation materials
- Tracking progress on evaluations
- CEUs tracking
- Database for articles/handouts I like to share
- Session/work calendar
- Daily tasks manager
- Time tracking
- Student scheduling
- Monthly services tracking
See? Lots of potential. Since Notion primarily consists of pages, tables/databases, and calendars, there are a lot of things you can customize for. I find the tables/databases to be the most powerful and useful feature in Notion for SLP organization.
Although I tried out Notion for all of the above, for most of them I ended up preferring other platforms. For example, for calendars, I prefer to use Google calendar – easier to use, looks nice, and integrates with other programs well. For daily tasks, I prefer to use Amazing Marvin (not free) as I find it much easier to use, faster, and more visually appealing.
I tried out Notion as a database for keeping track of therapy materials or resources I like, but this required using the paid plan for additional storage and I didn’t find it worth it over time. It was very time consuming to enter in the materials, organize them so I could find them later, and the loading time slowed as I added more materials.
I won’t waste time explaining how to set up pages and databases in Notion that I didn’t find worthwhile. I’m only focusing on how I’m currently using Notion.
What did I like Notion best for?
- Viewing my caseload
- Logging sessions
- Data collection/data tracking
At the start of the school year, I input my caseload into Notion (minus identifying information, such as full names, birthdates, etc.). I create different views of my caseload so I can easily see what’s most important to me, like seeing upcoming IEPs & evaluations first. Or seeing my caseload for each school.
Next, I create a page for each student where I will log their session notes & data. I set up a table with columns for all the information I want to collect, from session date, duration, number of students in group, to percentages for goals, level of cueing, an open notes field, etc. Then I set up autofills and buttons to reduce the amount of repetitive information I need to input each day. I also organize links to the student session logs based on when I see them in my schedule, to reduce the time it takes for me to find what I need.
These little automations and organizations I can set up at the beginning of the year make entering my daily session notes throughout the year simplier and faster. And that’s what I find most useful about Notion. Leveraging my strength in planning to compensate for my weaknesses in organization and task initiation.
Pros & Cons of Notion
Pros
Cons
Notion might work for you if…
1. Learning new things motivates you.
Most people don’t find filling out paperwork to be inherently motivating, myself included. I need something to spice up my organization systems to motivate me, keep me interested, give some dopamine to get me to do the boring thing that’s necessary for the job.
Learning new things is highly motivating to me. Mastering a new skill, trying out a new organization system – the newness factor engages me. It sparks interest and subsequent dopamine, which turns into motivation.
Notion is so customizable it can be overwhelming. But the steep learning curve is part of the draw for me, like a challenge or gamefying my paperwork. It isn’t quick or simple to set up, but creating my own setup in Notion feels rewarding. Since I enjoy the frame I’ve built, entering in the data to fill up the table becomes more satisfying, lowering the resistance to repetitive data entry.
2. You like planning but struggle to keep up with organization.
Like most autistic people, I have executive dysfunction, but I don’t struggle with every executive functioning skill. I excel in long-term planning and perseverance, clear strengths. But my organizational skills are pretty weak. Since Notion requires more planning and learning upfront to create your own system, I can hack my brain into organization via planning.
Digital tables organize themselves once you’ve set them up. You don’t need to print more pages or arrange papers in folders.
Notion takes care of a lot of the day-to-day organizing for me, as long as I’ve pre-planned what organization is needed and set that up. I don’t have to keep track of papers daily or do many major changes once I’ve built it. It just takes a longer time to build initially since you’re starting from scratch with building blocks. It’s like a choose-your-own organization system rather than try to mold yourself into an existing system.
One of my favorite things in Notion is how I can create buttons on a page to easily find and access the student data logs I need. I like to set up a Notion page where I list the days of the week (or letter/number days of the school) and then link each student’s data sheet below to the date/time they’re seen in the week. So instead of scrolling through names in folders, I simply scroll to the day of the week, and the student I’m looking for is right there.
3. You’re a bottom-up processor.
In Notion, you’re not given templates or already in-place systems to fit yourself into once you’re working with data. Instead, you consider the minute details first and build the system or pages yourself, expanding the vision as you go. You’re not given a cookie cutter done-for-you outline; you decide the parameters that will suit your needs, and change or evolve them as you go.
If you’re a bottom-up processor, you may really enjoy building your own templates from scratch to use later. If you’re a top-down processor, you can imagine a vision outcome and then figure out the details you’ll need to build in to get there, or there are lots of templates others have made that you can modify to best fit your needs.
4. You have more time & ambition at the beginning of the school year than the middle.
My setup in Notion makes data tracking and session notes quite simple to update throughout the year. I can click a button and Notion will automatically create a new entry for that student’s data, already set with recurring information that rarely changes – e.g., using today’s date as the session date, session duration, number of students in group. This means I don’t bore or tire myself out doing data entry on basic information that stays the same.
What is laborious to set up initially ends up paying off in time saved later.
When I’m not feeling like writing a summary of the session, it’s far easier to get myself to click some buttons in drop-down menus. Selecting from a menu reduces the cognitive load compared to writing a summary from scratch, so the mental threshold to just do the notes is lower.
5. You like to see your data clearly in tables.
Notion looks clean and you can create tables with as much or as little information as you want to display. You can create different views of a student’s data logs, such as a filtered view that only shows session data for Goal 1 and another view that only shows session data for Goal 2.
I like to control how much of the data I want to see when I open the student’s session notes. The table continues to hold all of the information I input, but I don’t need details like number of students in group to clutter my preferred view of the data table.
6. You don’t need to log session notes in another digital platform.
Last year, I stopped using Notion to log my session notes because I needed to enter my notes in the digital platform the school was using. I didn’t want to enter the data twice, one in my personal system and then again into the school’s system.
But come time for progress reports, I lamented not keeping my own personal data that was better organized and easier to sift through. I plan to return to Notion even if my next school requires me to use their system because I prefer to have more control over my data and it’s easier to see the data summarized in my own databases. For me, the pros outweigh the cons.
If you’re in a similar position, consider whether entering notes twice (even copy-and-pasting) is worth the effort and whether it would be sustainable for you over time. You don’t want to burn yourself out more by taking too much on, and perhaps just using the system the school mandates is enough for you.
7. You struggle with reviewing or interpreting your data come progress reports & annual IEPs.
I like using the tables the most for tracking percentages for IEP goals. The percentages are displayed in a column so it’s easy to track whether the student is progressing, regressing, or maintaining in terms of their written goals. I like to color code percentages sometimes for quickly glancing over progress.
I can also click a button below the table to calculate the average of the percentages shown in the table, and even filter out information such as calculating average from only the sessions in the last month. Less manual mathematical calculations is always a win in my book.
If I need to review and calculate only data for a single goal, I can use a filter so the table only shows the entries that pertain to the pre-determined goal. These features help me interpret the data I’ve collected and saves me so much time and headache when writing progress reports and annual IEPs.
8. Your current note system doesn’t make you feel confident.
I’m not the most confident person. So sometimes I feel compelled to avoid writing out my session notes because I’m feeling somehow responsible for minimal or no progress. I can feel as if I’m not “doing enough” for the student. Even if that’s not an accurate perception, It’s certainly not fun to type up things that make me feel like a failure. Anxieties don’t tend to be rational, and simply pointing out that fact doesn’t always lessen my anxieties.
Seeing the table for the student and the previous entries can make me feel more like a competent, responsible SLP. If I have it together enough that the student data is readily accessible to reference at any time, well I must be competent enough. I mean, I have these nice-looking tables. So my student not necessarily making progress doesn’t need to reflect my abilities or expertise as an SLP. I am not a failure when my efforts and the student’s efforts (great or lacking) is clearly visible.
Having this “fancy” feeling set up for data tracking and session notes does boost my confidence as an SLP. You want to see my data? Sure here you go, go wild. It’s all neatly arranged in these tables and charts. Not that I’m just handing out my session notes for anyone to see, but it is one less stressor to not have to worry about someone asking for my notes and stringing together various papers with messy scrawled tally marks. I still take data with messy scrawled tally marks, but then I enter the percentages in my data table and toss them. No more messy tally marks to be found. Ensue confidence boosting.
But what about SLP Toolkit?
Notion is not a replacement for SLP Toolkit. Since SLP Toolkit was built by SLPs with SLPs specifically in mind, its functionality is very SLP-centered, while Notion is meant to be customizable to fit a variety of needs.
SLP Toolkit has additional features for progress monitoring and rubrics to simplify reporting on student progress and data. They have screeners and progress monitoring probes tailored to common goal areas.
Lots of amazing and useful features, but SLP Toolkit is a subscription service. And Notion is free for my personal use. I’m always going to try to make free tools work for me first, and move to paid ones when the free tools are not enough for my needs.
Learn more about my Notion setup
As a neurodivergent SLP who has struggled with executive dysfunction and organization my entire life (guess who had the messiest desk in 1st grade?), Notion has become a system that I feel like can actually work with my brain, not against it. I can use my own neurodivergent strengths – planning, perseverance, hyperfocus, patience – to compensate for my neurodivergent weaknesses – organization, time management, task initiation.
Only you can decide what works as an organization system for you. I’m not recommending every SLP out there use Notion to revolutionize your system. Notion works well for me, so I figure it can work well for someone else, especially if your brain works similarly to mine. But it’s not a miracle tool that will be a good fit for everyone.
If you’re interested in learning more about Notion and creating your own Notion system, stay tuned for upcoming articles where I walk you through my entire Notion system and set up. I show you exactly how I created my Notion pages if you want to replicate my system and if you don’t want to take the initial time investment for set up, you can check out my templates.